Thursday, January 26, 2006

Australia Day

Well, it's been a funny Australia Day, stinking hot (as you might expect) with a massive storm just before dinner that caused several shorts and lost me the first draft of the above layout, LOL (always remember to back up!!!)...

Thought I'd do a quite sum up of what I think of when thinking of what being Australian means to me...

My most potent thoughts relate back to my childhood in Whyalla, back then I felt Australian, since then I have felt that way, possibly because I live overseas for all of my teen years and then some...

What is essential Australia for me:

Days so hot you can't go outside

The smell of rain on hot cement at the end of days so hot you can't go outside

The sound of thunder that rolls in and out without a drop of rain for four years

Long dusty drives through salt bush to "go visit Nanna and Grandad" after Christmas

Stirring up the red dust on a Kawasaki on the weekend with mum and dad

Wagon Wheels melting in your hand as you eat

Vegemite sandwiches for school lunch

Carols by candlelight on a 28 degree evening in shorts and sandals

Sausages cooked over a camp fire in the back yard

The penetrating sound of Cicadas at night

Magpies warbling at first light

Banana Paddlepop icecreams

The smell of school uniforms dried in the sun

Apricots in the backyard from the overhanging tree belonging to Mrs Rogers next door

Melamine Skippy plates

Twisties

Icecream on the foreshore

Floating in the sea in an innertube

Looking for trapdoor spider in an empty lot

Tonight for dinner we had panfried chicken (in herbs and spices) sliced and served with salad, the kids loved it...

AND I found out my mum's youngest sister, my Aunty Helga, who is 5 years older is having her third baby in two months time, so I'll have a new cousin 6-7 months younger than my youngest! Icelanders don't talk about pregnancy, and so while I've talked to all my family over there a lot in the past 7 months, it was only an errant comment that let slip that Helga is due soon...